In-depth looks at the merits of the latest albums

Conscious

West coast rapper Boogie has been generating a lot of anticipation for his debut studio album since signing to Eminem’s Shady Records label – which is a pretty exclusive deal to get! Everything’s For Sale has arrived, and despite drawing some pretty obvious inspiration from his rap contemporaries on a few tracks, the project manages to put Boogie’s storytelling ability, which has the potential to be on par with some of the current greats, on full display. Boogie’s nasal, Chance The Rapper-esque delivery and his frequently underwhelming singing voice bring down the musicality of the project more often than not here, but it’s easy to see what Eminem saw in him – Boogie’s lyricism is vivid and compelling, and with a better team surrounding him as he grows, this project could mark the very beginnings of something exciting.

Opener “Tired/Reflections” is bookended by recordings of people criticizing Boogie’s “conscious” content, saying they’re tired of hearing it and want to escape into something more meaningless and fun. Boogie drops into a spoken word verse over an introspective guitar instrumental and some orchestral chords. He details his need to get the content that he does out, with some poignant observations on how his realistic descriptions of his own lived experience of racism and violence can just as easily be twisted and interpreted stereotypically. It’s the kind of track that quiets down the other aspects so you can really focus on what he has to say, and these are the ones that excel on this project.

“Lolsmh” is another pretty original concept that Boogie takes a deep dive into and honestly reminds me of some Kendrick Lamarian storytelling techniques. Placing the omnipresence of social media, its effect on his own mental health and its propensity for others to leave their morals at the door in pursuit of fame under the spotlight, Boogie goes in for 4 minutes of straight verse with a dejected and confessional tone of voice and dropping lyrical gems and astute observations left and right. The theme continues on the track “Live 95”, as Boogie plays a character finding self-worth in what he obtains from his social media presence before dropping into a verse as himself searching for the same thing. Despite a recent influx of money, he still associates his worth with his poorer upbringings that constituted most of his life.

Quite a few of the more upbeat, more traditionally radio-oriented tracks on this project actually had the potential to be just as good as the more lyrical ones here if he had gotten someone else to sing the hooks – Boogie’s singing voice is seriously not good, and he uses it a lot. He tries to do these Weeknd-like quick trills on almost every track where he sings and the awkward breaks in his voice where he can’t complete them throw the rhythm off. A track like “Silent Ride” is structured to be the catchiest track here with a trap instrumental and some well-written internal rhymes in the hook, but I can’t get through that raspy, nasal delivery on the hook to fully enjoy it.

It only gets worse when he tries to apply it to more alt-R&B oriented tracks like “Skydive” and “Swap Meet”, where he dips in and out of an off-key falsetto and lacks the ability to keep a slower, completely sung track engaging. “Skydive” actually does have a pretty fantastic instrumental that sounds like it was influenced by Latin guitar patterns. It’s backed up by some rumbling bass ratcheting up the intensity, but Boogie sounds completely detached on the sung hook. It goes to show just how much he doesn’t fit with the style when the derivative 6lack outshines him at the end of “Skydive II”.

In terms of Boogie’s less conscious tracks here, “Soho”, a collaboration with up-and-comer JID, is easily the best despite its shorter length. Featuring a quotable chorus and beat that combines some modern and old-school production styles, the two speed up their flow and dismiss fake friends.

Eminem himself appears on the track “Rainy Days”, Boogie’s voice at peak Chance the Rapper on a pretty catchy, soulful hook and spastic, paranoid verse before Eminem comes in with what might be one of his worst feature verses in a long time, and there’s been quite a few that haven’t been up to par recently. His speedy, robotic flow doesn’t match the slowly creeping beat at all and loses all semblance of musicality, not to mention that his dad-jokes and puns are as groan-eliciting as ever. At least now Boogie can say that he easily outrapped one of the greats on a track.

The final 4 tracks constitute Boogie addressing a couple more distinct topics over the course of some shorter song lengths, closing out the project on a high note as we’re reminded about his best asset. Trumpeter Christian Scott enhances Boogie’s stories surrounding relationship drama on “Whose Fault”, while “Self Destruction” is another standout as he interpolates Mac Miller on the hook and injects some energy back into his voice.

All in all, Everything’s For Sale can be a frustrating listen at times due to its inconsistency. There’s one aspect of his work that Boogie does exceptionally well, but everything else is lagging slightly behind average. There are a couple times where it does click together here, but I’ll be anticipating the improvement that I know he has the potential for in the future.

Joyride is a project that frequently underrated R&B artist Tinashe has been promoting since 2015, delayed multiple times as it was apparently held back by label deman 2016’s Nightride album was a catchy, ethereal teaser, but it may have ended up being better than the final product. The label intervention is evident across this project, Tinashe’s quieter style frequently offset by obvious attempts to land her another radio hit with awkward rap features (one fittingly being Offset himself) and production from pop hitmakers like Stargate. The album is a directionless mixed bag, but she still manages to shine in the few occasions where she’s allowed to do what she wants here.

Tinashe has always been at her best on more throwback production styles, rather than the more marketable and upbeat party tracks that take up most of the space on this album. Sometimes the two styles are mixed together and the juxtaposition is too much, like on title track “Joyride”, which places a loud “la-la-la” melody and huge beat overtop of the orchestral and spacey synths and strings that she is more known for, which fail to accommodate the constant high energy of the rest of the track. The pure pop tracks fare a little bit better – I’m not going to lie and say “No Drama” doesn’t get stuck in my head for days at a time – but it’s far from the artist I know she can be, she’s a better singer than this basic melody over a trap beat. “Me So Bad” is the most blatant attempt at a trend-riding track that never would have made it onto a Tinashe project with creative freedom, the lyrics doing little more than pointing to her looks with a pretty inexcusable French Montana feature and a beat that manages to take the worst elements of both the tropical and dancehall trends at the same time. The last few tracks on the album never quite come together, the scores of writers in the credits becoming evident as the commercial aspect overrides artistry, the hint of a trap hi-hat echoing on even the slowest tracks. What in the world is that disjointed Future verse??

It would be a much different story if the whole album was filled with tracks like “He Don’t Want It”, the closest thing we get to the highlights of Nightride like “C’est La Vie” and “Ghetto Boy”. Tinashe uses both ends of her vocal register, the breathy falsetto verse introducing the more powerful chorus. I love when most of the elements of the track are made of Tinashe’s dynamic vocal abilities, and the ethereal backing harmonies complete the picture here. It’s great to hear elements of a trap beat without the same rhythms we’re all familiar with from all-star hip-hop producer T-Minus as well. Follow-up “Ooh La La” is an homage to the early-2000s R&B that Tinashe would have thrived in, with a pretty fun flip of a sample from Nelly’s “Dilemma” and calmly picked guitar melody reminiscent of “Suga Suga”, while an unexpected collaboration with Little Dragon on “Stuck With Me” is a fantastic surprise, Tinashe and Yukimi Nagano’s voices occupying that perfect space of having a similar tone that’s just distinct enough to distinguish the individuals.

The way Tinashe’s career has been handled is one of the most consistently depressing things about the music in Here’s hoping she goes independent and drops some old-school R&B gems on us.

North Carolina rapper J. Cole bounces back in a huge way after 2016’s disappointing 4 Your Eyez Only with his 5th studio album KOD, a concept album of sorts that sees him discouraging forms of substance abuse that have affected him and those he observed in the past by through some Kendrick Lamar-esque play with the embodiment of opposing characters and points of view. While Cole doesn’t really do anything groundbreaking here musically, he escapes criticism by tying it perfectly into the theme of the album, stating that the addictive, repetitive hooks and trap beats resemble the drugs he speaks of. Plus, what I was really missing from Cole was the fire in his delivery, and that’s fully returned with this more modern, upbeat style.

“There are many ways to deal with pain … Choose wisely”, echoes a voice throughout the album. The tracklist is divided about half and half, sometimes on the same song, as Cole portrays either himself making the wise choices in the present or a character addicted to or dependent on one of the many “drugs” he describes, both literal and more abstract, like money, power or love. Opening track “KOD” lets listeners know early that Cole has snapped out of the trance that dominated his previous album, offering a rapid-fire triplet flow and booming bassline. The popularized Migos flow shows up quite a bit across this project, but it’s still great to hear Cole’s take on it since his voice and delivery can be one of the most engaging in the industry when he wants it to, always with a sarcastic wink and a jovial bounce. Cole produced nearly all of the beats on this project without any assistance, raising the impressiveness again. My favourite beat of all though is attributed to T-Minus, on standout track “Kevin’s Heart”. Cole makes his dexterous flow sound easy mainly due to the chilled out, 8-bit video game-style instrumental that makes everything sound more impressive on an intoxicating half-time tempo.

Perhaps the fact that I’m so drawn to Cole’s repetitive tracks like “Motiv8” and “ATM”, where he portrays a character dependent on an unstable source of income, proves his point. These cheap thrills really are easy to turn to, rather than paying attention to what he’s saying on the more lyrical tracks. While they do veer a bit into the same sluggish tempos he employed earlier, tracks like “Brackets” and “Once an Addict” revive Cole’s elite storytelling ability to tell some tales of how his community and his own life are affected by what he describes. Cole’s advice across the board is never preachy because he is quick to acknowledge that he himself had fallen prey to it as well – he tells a heartbreaking tale of both he and his mother turning to drugs and alcohol to deal with the abusive stepfather that has turned up in many tracks across his career, offering genuine advice to personal friends and younger rappers on “Friends” and “1985” about falling prey to all the various drugs of life, admitting his message isn’t “the coolest” in an endearing way.

One of the main themes that frequently seem to hold a Cole album back is his singing, which he almost always relies on more than he should. It makes a few hooks here more awkward than they should be, such as on “Photograph” where he never quite clicks into the beat perfectly. His Kill Edward character’s pitch shifted delivery also muddles his words and throws the pitch off on tracks like “The Cut Off”, but it still adds to the message of the song, the addicted Edward sounding lost and troubled, out of step with the rest of reality.

KOD delivers an important message in a very smart way, Cole bringing back his relatable character and storytelling ability to spread awaren Luckily, by exploring characters Cole can do this and deliver some upbeat, fun tracks at the same time. He boasts about his versatility contributing to his longevity over trend-hoppers on closer “1985”, and KOD backs up his point.

Favourite Tracks: Kevin’s Heart, ATM, FRIENDS, KOD, BRACKETS

Least Favourite Track: The Cut Off

Score: 8/10

Bishop Briggs – Church of Scars

British alt-pop musician Bishop Briggs’ debut studio album Church of Scars comes in the wake of the success of her 2016 single “River” on alternative and rock radio due to her trademark growl and heavier approach to poppier melodies. Her songs have been used in commercials, also contributing to her steady rise, and this album makes it easy to see why. Her formula across these brief 10 tracks becomes incredibly evident and safe, reminding me of Imagine Dragons’ latest project Evolve in terms of the build-up to an explosive chorus over some soul chords that she employs in every song. While her vocal power is undeniable, Church of Scars loses its element of surprise immediately.

Briggs blends elements of the past and present across the whole album to varying degrees of success, mixing rock and blues instrumentation with modern trends of pop music such as electronic synthlines and hip-hop influenced percussion, a computerized water-droplet beat quickly snapping the old-soul sound of Briggs’ vocal delivery into the more modern era in opening track “Tempt My Trouble”. While this track serves as one of the most immediately catchy offerings, even it falls into the repetitive techniques that plague most of the tracklisting. Briggs’ voice really does have a lot of potential, and I could see her imbuing it with the genuine emotion that the power behind it deserves to make some powerful content, but she settles for Chainsmokers-style thematic lyricism around a seemingly randomly generated noun and melodies that stay in a safe position in order to build up to the reveal of the only trick she has – the overriding of a vaguely electronic blues-rock template with her growling, explosive vocal wails.

Her blends of styles often come across as trying too hard. I feel like I write the word “trap” in every review I write nowadays, but the plaintive acoustic background of a song like “Lyin’” sounds ridiculous with those persistent hi-hats at a time when we hear them everywhere, and whoever did the backing vocals doesn’t help the track much either, sounding too anthemic and angry for the instrumental since an explosive rendition of the chorus is apparently a necessity for each and every track regardless. “White Flag” shows that the vitriol she spits into every syllable doesn’t work as well with rapidly delivered vocals, the rhythm of the chorus lagging behind. As the album goes on, we lose any hope of being moved by Briggs’ power, since we expect her to be yelling at us by the end of every song, knowing not to trust the quieter acoustic introduction.

There really are quite a few promising elements here, such as the industrial and menacing horn section on “Wild Horses”, but an attempt at an EDM-style chorus breakdown changes the tempo in such a miniscule way that it becomes irritating, throwing off my rhythm. It all comes together best on “Hallowed Ground”, which incorporates a gospel organ and horn section breakdown that switches things up instrumentally for a break in the monotony.

Briggs has a lot of raw talent, but she relies much too heavily on a formula attempting to place her in the modern musical context that she doesn’t really need. With a better team around her, I hope she can convert the energy she possesses into more creative, well-structured song material.

We’ve finally reached the last review post of the year, which means it’s time for Year-End Lists! My top 50 songs and top 25 albums of the year should be out before the new year, stay tuned.

Eminem – Revival

Best-selling hip-hop artist of all time Eminem returns after a 4-year break with his ninth studio album, Revival, concluding a trilogy that included more poorly received work in Relapse and Recovery. While Revival does give the generational talent some more space to flex his unparalleled technical muscles, the team around him contributes to the same problems that have been plaguing him for a while, reaching some pretty inexcusable levels on this project.

For every one of Eminem’s dad-joke punchlines that becomes the butt of a joke on the internet, he has about five brilliant displays of wordplay here. There’s a moment on “Chloraseptic” where he laces only words with three different “a” sounds together in a recurring pattern for about 30 seconds – nobody else can do this stuff. Revival excels when Eminem’s goofy persona cuts through all of the commercialization of his more recent efforts, embracing the cringe factor perfectly on the Joan Jett-sampling “Remind Me” with some delightfully disgusting pick-up lines. Unfortunately, he’s not nearly as hilarious on the other dated Rick Rubin-produced rap-rock tracks, of which there are too many that fall flat. The final two tracks, “Castle” and “Arose” are the album’s highlight, offering the only believable emotional content on the album as Eminem revisits his overdose and near-death experience in 2007, writing to his daughter as he recounts his career and expresses his love for her in his final thoughts. “Arose” references “Castle”, rewinding to its final verse as Eminem completes it by abandoning his pills instead of taking them. It would be a beautifully fitting end to his career, if his threats of retirement are true.

Many criticized the tracklist for including so many pop features, and the final product certainly features a glossy pop-rap sheen that decreases the impact of Eminem’s vitriolic delivery technique. “Need Me” is basically a P!nk song. The mixing on this album is shocking for such a high-profile artist, tracks like “Tragic Endings” legitimately confusing me if something on my end was wrong due to how off-kilter the vocal levels were. What might be the most disappointing thing however, is Eminem trying incredibly hard to show us that he has emotional depth, all while sounding like a robot with the choppy staccato flow he insists on using lately. The same artist who gave us ruthless tracks in his Slim Shady persona opens the album with “Walk On Water”, a 5-minute track about how criticism hurts his feelings. For whatever reason, hearing Eminem care about things is disheartening. I expected Eminem to offer scathing, nihilistic takes on the world’s problems, but instead he falls back into fake-deep, baseline “inspirational” content on political tracks like “Like Home”. He follows up his 2013 apology to his mother with a copy-and-pasted apology to ex-wife Kim on “Bad Husband”, and legitimately censors himself on “Framed”. I understand why with the current wave of sexual assault stories, but this is Eminem we’re talking about. His lyrics on “Offended” aren’t as shocking anymore, what really offends me is the atrocious playground-chant chorus that completely disrupts the rhythm.

At the end of the day, Eminem is still one of the most talented artists to ever live, and the brief glimpses of that on this project are enough to save it from being unlistenable. It’s not doing much for his legacy though.

Favourite Tracks: Castle, Arose, Remind Me

Least Favourite Track: Nowhere Fast

Score: 4/10

N.E.R.D. – NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES

Superproducer Pharrell Williams revives his band for their first album in 7 years, delving back into his funk and hip-hop roots with one of the most sonically experimental albums of the year. Things are still based around The Neptunes’ stripped-down, percussion-heavy style, but Pharrell adapts to his many guests and builds some solid walls of sound around it, creating waves of pure hyperactive energy around his James Brownian vocal delivery.

We open strong with single “Lemon”, Pharrell immediately jumping into a frenzied, slightly off-kilter rap verse before the track breaks down and Rihanna struts onto the track and delivers an incredible, quotable and confident verse like she’s been doing it her whole career. The tracks only get more complex from there, bringing Chad Hugo’s guitars back in and frequently offering abrupt shifts mid-song. “Lightning Fire Magic Prayer” is a nearly 8-minute, constantly fluid masterpiece that begins with Pharrell asking his 9-year old son to sing the letter “G” – a note which he electronically extends as a recurring motif throughout. The first half sounds more like Pharrell’s more contemplative work on G I R L. We hear chirping birds and running water in the background as he sings of a universal connection, the second half breaking out into a hip-hop beat and metallic synth pattern as his peaceful prophecies are realized. The Future-featuring “1000” could easily start a riot, built on rhythmic interlocking vocal samples, distorted synth bass and Pharrell yelling “HOLY S**T IT’S WORKING”. Halfway through the track he says something about “rainbow angst” and the sound follows suit, with high pitched sugary yet distorted synths suddenly at the forefront of the track in what could only be described as rainbow angst. It’s complete madness, and it’s beautiful.

N.E.R.D.’s lyrics get political as well, sending thinly veiled accusations against “Mr. Wizard of Oz”, the President, on nearly every song and dedicating the Frank Ocean co-written track “Don’t Don’t Do It!” to victims of police brutality. Pharrell’s lyricism is still as whimsical and optimistic as ever, so hearing him talk about these issues is equally endearing and affecting. “I hope you’re just talking, man”, he emotes regarding the border wall on the frantic “Deep Down Body Thurst” before exploding into a huge breakbeat and group chanting. “Don’t Don’t Do It!” begins with this sunny funk guitar pattern, but an angrier riff starts slowly creeping in as you start to realize the darker subject matter, coming in fully as Kendrick Lamar delivers one of his most technically incredible verses of the year verbally obliterating the police force.

There are certainly times here where Pharrell’s lyrics get a little too cheesy, or the more toned-down, early Neptunes sections of the track verge on tedious and repetitive, but there are so many surprises on this project that they just fly by and you become immersed in something else. Strap in and enjoy the ride.

Charli XCX’s second mixtape of the year ventures into even more experimental territory than Number 1 Angel did, bringing on a wealth of guests and taking PC Music production to another level. While some of these ideas are a little too out there for my personal tastes, Charli XCX has been triumphantly leading the way for experimental pop music this year and delivers some great tracks on this project.

Most of the production here is handled by PC Music figurehead A.G. Cook, but of course Charli had to bring the most unique producer working in SOPHIE on board for a single track once again. Her track “Out Of My Head” is a pretty flawless pop song, forming a trio with Scandinavian singers Alma and Tove Lo, reiterating the titular line in the chorus by interrupting and layering on top of each other for a truly unique and immersive listening experience. Charli declares herself a “Femmebot” on the track of the same name, an all-out sugar rush of explosive 80s synth chords and robot metaphors, and the glitchy effects on her production and vocals here can be used for some pretty brilliant effects. “Lucky” slows things down, one of the only tracks without a guest, and her vocals are shifted rapidly between notes for a Kanye West-esque emotional effect, her vocal cutting out while she sings about a connection breaking up and somehow conveying more emotion through incomprehensible autotuned mumbling than actual words.

For whatever reason, Charli turns up the autotune effect here, and for someone who already has a kind of nasal tone to their voice, the juxtaposition of these effects to the PC Music style of heavy electronic synth production can get a little grating, becoming too robotic by removing too much personality. Her long-awaited collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen, “Backseat”, layers multiple harmonies of her heavily autotuned vocals with Carly’s more folksy, untouched vocal takes over some high-pitched background synths for a track that is much too chaotic. In the same vein, the decision to include a faint recording of Charli’s blood-curdling scream, recurring in the background of already repetitive track “Tears”, distracts too much from the experience.

Charli XCX has truly morphed from the burgeoning bubblegum popstar we envisioned in 2013 to a proponent of all things weird. This is pop music in 3017, and perhaps I just haven’t caught up to it yet. A lot of these tracks sound more like a celebration of her spectacular year than cohesive music, throwing absolutely everything at the wall because she can – and you have to have some respect for that.

Chicago rapper Vic Mensa’s debut album has been in the works for a very long time. With the incredible 2013 mixtape INNANETAPE and EP There’s Alot Going On under his belt, The Autobiography is finally being delivered to us in the wake of many problems in Mensa’s life. The introspective lyricist was seemingly lost for a while, releasing subpar throwaway singles. He revealed on There’s Alot Going On that this was due to suicidal thoughts, drug abuse and a toxic relationship, and he continues to address these issues on his very personal lyrics on this project.

Now that a full project from Mensa is finally here, it’s a lot more inconsistent than I would have expected. Despite Mensa’s frequent lyrical flashes, he is certainly not without his occasional misguided concept or questionable singing voice and delivery. There are a lot of great musical moments on here, but for a project with a title as ambitious as The Autobiography, Mensa leaves a lot to be desired.

Mensa recruits a few high-profile producers, including The-Dream, Pharrell Williams, who features on “Wings”, and the legendary No I.D., who plays supplementary roles to lesser-known Chicago area producers on almost every track here. I give props to the producers and Mensa for the project not being very trap-influenced and riding trends, the unique rock-influenced instrumentals fitting Mensa’s aesthetic better.

For someone who is known for their lyricism, a lot of the greatest moments on this album are actually due to the instrumentals. Mensa’s inspirations are quite obvious on this album and some of the greatest tracks here resemble some of Kanye’s early work – both in terms of his complexity and soul sampling, and the stadium rap of Graduation. Even though it’s an overused sample, the flip of Darondo’s “Didn’t I” on the opening track of the same name complements Mensa’s erratic flow well. The innate rhythms of the soul track in its walking bassline and syncopated guitar stabs highlight his technical abilities.

The Graduation-style tracks make things a lot more anthemic on tracks like “Rollin’ Like A Stoner”. The track brings to mind Kid Cudi’s more pop-driven early tracks as he shouts the chorus and the synths blare. Mensa knows exactly what he is doing when he speaks about the dangers of drug abuse on a catchy party track, knowing it will go right over some people’s heads.

Mensa’s lyricism is very compelling when at its best, such as on tracks like “Wings”. Mensa describes himself spreading his wings and leaving his problems in his past. The lyrical and emotional peak of the album comes when he lets the voices in his head take over the second verse, yelling at him to end his life and that he’s an embarrassment before he breaks free at the track’s conclusion.

Mensa seems to really struggle with originality here. His flow on Innanetape was refreshing and different, but here he adapts so much to J. Cole’s style of storytelling that he picks up his flow on almost every track. He has elements of Kanye in his cadence, and doesn’t even try to hide how much of a blatant rip-off of Eminem’s hit “Stan” “Heaven On Earth” is.

It additionally makes it hard for me to get invested in Mensa’s lyrics when some of the song concepts here either don’t make much sense or are downright offensive. The back-to-back tracks “Homewrecker” and “Gorgeous” address Mensa’s past disastrous relationship, getting very specific and personal about scenarios where the two got into violent physical altercations.

Mensa criticizes his partner’s behaviour for destroying his property and calls her “crazy”, acting as if he did nothing to provoke her. Mensa’s reveals she acted in this way after he was caught cheating, but he quickly skims over this detail and even tries to justify it. Instead of showing a shred of remorse, Mensa tries to convince us that he absolutely had to do it – they’re both “Gorgeous”. A cringeworthy punchline in reference to the band Smashing Pumpkins only adds to the nonsense.

On “Heaven On Earth”, Mensa’s deceased friend calls him from Heaven to inform him – good news – Kurt Cobain loves his music, and he said Vic is “on the right path”. It’s maddeningly self-righteous for someone who just put out their debut album.

Mensa’s delivery is pretty terrible at times – “Memories on 47th St.” is a middling track that could have been injected with a bit more energy during the raps, but it is brought way down when he reaches into his upper register on the chorus and can’t actually hold a note. “Coffee & Cigarettes” shows this at it’s absolute worst. The instrumental is quite empty, and Mensa sings throughout the whole track with some romantic lyrics directed at the same girl from the earlier tracks. He sounds very immature in his approach to everything, and it’s not even believable due to his antagonism towards her earlier. By the time he’s wishing she loved him “even half as much as weed” halfway through the track, I’m completely over what he has to say.

It’s clear that despite what Mensa states on “Wings”, he’s still a pretty troubled individual and we can never be sure what we’re going to receive from him. It’s a shame because Mensa is so naturally talented and he’s demonstrated this on many occasions. I can only hope he continues to work on himself and hits us with another INNANETAPE in the future.

Favourite Tracks: Down For Some Ignorance (Ghetto Lullaby), Rollin’ Like A Stoner, Didn’t I (Say I Didn’t), Wings

Maryland rapper Logic’s third studio album, Everybody, is yet another dense and sprawling concept album from the technical wizard. While there are still some great moments where we get to see just how impressive Logic is as a pure rapper, everything I have criticized about his music in the past is multiplied here, turning the project into what is easily his weakest effort. Logic builds a loose thread of a story around Andy Weir’s novel “The Egg”, where the album’s central character Atom has a discussion with God, played by scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, in which he learns he has been getting reincarnated as every person who ever lived in order to understand the full scope of human experience.

Logic frequently speaks on his own life and the racism he experienced from both the white and black community, emphasizing a message of peace and love. While this is certainly an admirable message to have, the way Logic delivers it is heavy-handed, preachy and even contradictory at times. This is disappointing, as the music at its core is about as good as it’s ever been.

Logic often comes across as more of a hip-hop fan who made it big than his own artist with his own creative vision, and he continues to wear his influences on his sleeve throughout. Everybody contains some standard hip-hop beats that frequently draw influence from rappers like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Drake – all infused with an orchestral and cinematic quality that might be Logic’s most original recognizable trait. He demonstrates his impressive double-time flow on almost every track here, showing that he is still among the top of his class in terms of sheer technical ability.

A unique range of guests appear here, most of them discussing these important issues with much more gravitas than Logic can – Killer Mike delivers a preacher’s sermon at the end of “Confess”, rising R&B artists Alessia Cara and Khalid join forces on Logic’s suicide prevention anthem, and “America” brings together rap legends Black Thought, Chuck D and No ID. Even more unusual is Logic trading bars with his polar opposite Juicy J, and the appearance of actor Ansel Elgort singing at the tail end of “Killing Spree”.

Logic’s performance across the board is equal to or possibly even better than his previous works – it’s a shame that what he’s saying brings this way down. I could go on forever about the nuances of Logic’s dexterous flow, and even his singing voice here is a pleasant surprise, appearing more than you would think. Every track but one here is produced by Logic’s close friend and frequent collaborator 6ix and Logic himself, trading off on who receives primary credit, and these instrumentals are a very strong aspect of the album as well. Learning that Logic took on a bigger role in production than he has before impressed me even further – these are some seriously dynamic and energizing beats which should have provided a backbone emphasizing the importance of Logic’s message. “America” is driven by a classic old-school boom-bap beat and a catchy yet absolutely menacing synth bass loop, while the beat of “Take It Back”, one of the album’s best, is wasted on a two-minute rap and a 5-minute speech.

Logic’s aspirations as a movie director cause him to extend his skits even further than before, as the central thread of the story and Logic’s discussions of his own life experiences often extend past 5 minutes. Some tracks have more talking than music, decreasing the album’s replayability. Everything is made even more ridiculous when it is revealed that the whole world Logic paints here is just a part of the one he created on his previous album, The Incredible True Story. This album turns out to just be walking music for the astronauts on the planet Paradise. Logic has frequently been accused of being a “biter” – that is, blatantly lifting aspects other rappers have popularized for himself. “Everybody” is one of the album’s best tracks, but that’s because it’s basically just Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”. It all becomes even more evident here.

Logic’s subject matter is the real problem here, however – I have criticized him for speaking about his race, and almost nothing else, to ultimately the same effect even before this album came out. On this album, the same message is repeated on each and every track. Logic’s observations are quite surface level, telling us little past the facts we already know – that these problems exist, and awareness is important. Even the little meaning we can derive from this is lost when we are beaten over the head with this repeatedly. I could speak more about Logic’s muddled message, but I’ll leave it at this: Juicy J literally proclaims to his detractors “Kill yo mothaf**kin self” 3 tracks before Logic’s suicide prevention song, a song that contains the lyric “Who can relate? Woo!”

The idea of this album is very admirable and interesting in theory, but falls completely flat in execution. Logic has been proving that his intentions are in the right place for a few albums now, but he lacks the narrative coherence to effectively bring out what he is trying to say, settling for repetition of surface level concepts instead. But hey – he’s a pretty impressive rapper.

Indie-pop duo Broods, hailing from New Zealand and consisting of siblings Georgia and Caleb Nott, obliterate the sophomore curse with what is easily one of the best albums of the year. Working with the same personnel for the most part, multi-instrumentalist Caleb and Grammy Award-winning producer Joel Little, who also collaborates extensively with fellow New Zealand native Lorde (co-writer of standout track “Heartlines”), establish synth-based instrumentals which can be both intricate and dreamy, and absolutely huge and hard-hitting, often switching seamlessly between the two mid-song. Such a soundscape provides the perfect environment for Georgia’s vocals to shine, and shine they should.

Now with a wider audience, it would surprise me if Broods did not ultimately cross over to North American pop radio rapidly for nothing other than the strength of her voice alone. A breathy soprano with the potential to transform into an almost overpowering and emotionally laden belt at any given moment mirrors the dynamic quality of the music which accompanies it. This is a bold, confident sound to present, and it expands on the similar sound presented in their previous works mainly by raising the complexity of the instrumentals for a more creative and interesting overall product.

The music itself consists of a variety of clean-cut and punchy rhythms and anthemic choruses, lending the majority of the songs a kind of pulsing energy which one would be hard-pressed not to move to. These instrumentals are quite carefully crafted and the degree of work put into every facet of the many sounds we are hearing certainly comes across to the listener. One of the greatest examples is the layering on Georgia’s vocals on nearly every track, creating harmonies with herself and adding to the overall atmospheric, dreampop-style sound permeating the project. These pounding and frenetic instrumentals occasionally cease for a few interludes of calmer tracks, toning down most of the percussion to showcase Georgia’s marvellous instrument further. Though while it’s usually all about Georgia, the instrumentalists do get to flex their muscles a bit on closing title track “Conscious”, in which the flowing synth orchestra takes over and Georgia’s voice is chopped up over the wave of sound for a powerful and effective outro.

Many of these songs do tend to sound quite similar to each other, falling into somewhat of a formula, the formula they have going is so overwhelmingly good that I find it hard to care. However, this similarity does cause some of the slower tracks, often more experimental and unique (“All of Your Glory”), to stand out. The true appeal of Broods is the strength of the chemistry between this trifecta of musicians: Caleb, Georgia and Joel Little. Such a boundless voice combined with a very creative pop producer and talented multi-instrumentalist, plus the added brother-sister connection, is a force to be reckoned with. This is a very cohesive project, and care was clearly taken with the transitions.

Joel Little with his Song of the Year Grammy for “Royals”

“Freak of Nature”, featuring Tove Lo, is a masterpiece and perhaps the best song I’ve heard all year. Slow building songs are difficult to pull off effectively and, when done right, are my favourite kinds. The track begins at a near whisper, backed only by a minimalistic piano loop, and continues to add elements until Tove Lo and Georgia’s emotive and wailing vocals are bouncing off of each other over a massive instrumental. The kicker is that the song also contains the album’s heaviest and most meaningful lyrics depicting struggles with mental illness. And, like all great songs of this variety do, concludes at the whisper that began it once again.

Broods comes across to me like a more mature and established version of CHVRCHES, what the band could be exercising at their full potential at all times, which is a bold statement for me to make as quite a large fan of CHVRCHES especially because the bands are at essentially the same stage of their careers. The main reason this album crossed over into perfect score territory, something I intend to give out very sparingly, is because I agonized over choosing my favourite and least favourite tracks because they are all so perfect. It is an absolute wonder that an opening song as fantastic as “Free”, a somewhat sinister-sounding song which establishes the sound and serves as great preparation for what is about to come, is immediately followed by 5 straight tracks that are even better. Conscious is flawlessly melodic synthpop bliss.

Favourite Tracks: Freak of Nature, Are You Home, We Had Everything, Full Blown Love, Bedroom Door